Orthotic support and stimulus systems and methods

Abstract

An embodiment of the invention includes (a) modeling a first internal force applied to a model of a user's joint based on a first external force externally applied to the joint at a first position; (b) modeling a second internal force applied to the model based on a second external force externally applied to the joint at a second position unequal to the first position; (c) comparing the first and second modeled internal forces; and (d) simulating the user based on the comparison. Other embodiments are described herein.

What is claimed is: 
     
       1. A system comprising:
 at least one memory; 
 an electrode; 
 at least one sensor comprising at least member selected from the group comprising: at least one electrode, at least one accelerometer, and a positional angular sensor; 
 at least one signal conditioner including a frequency filter and an analog-to-digital (A/D) converter; 
 a comparator; 
 at least one processor, coupled to the at least one memory, to perform steps comprising:
 (a)(i) measurement of a first movement or position of a limb attached to a user's joint via the at least one sensor; 
 (a)(ii) measurement of a second movement or position of the limb attached to the joint via the at least one sensor; 
 (a)(iii) condition the measurement of the first movement or position of the limb via the as least one signal conditioner; 
 (a)(iv) condition the measurement of the second movement or position of the limb via the at least one signal conditioner; 
 
 at least one finite state controller, coupled to the at least one memory, to perform steps comprising:
 (b)(i) model a first internal force applied to the user's joint based on the conditioned measurement of the first movement or position of the limb attached to the joint at a first point in time; 
 (b)(ii) model a second internal force applied to the joint based on the conditioned measurement of the second movement or position of the limb attached to the joint at a second point in time; 
 
 wherein the at least one processor is to further perform steps comprising:
 (c)(1) compare, via the comparator, the first and the second modeled internal forces; and 
 (c)(2) stimulate muscle of the user, via the electrode, based on the comparison. 
 
 
     
     
       2. The system of  claim 1 , wherein the at least one processor is to:
 receive input from the user corresponding to the first movement or position; and 
 store the first internal force based on receiving the input. 
 
     
     
       3. The system of  claim 2 , wherein receiving the input from the user is substantially contemporaneous with the user experiencing one of joint pain and joint instability. 
     
     
       4. The system of  claim 1 , wherein at least one of the at least one finite state controller and the at least one processor is to:
 determine a second plurality of characteristics corresponding to the first modeled internal force; 
 determine a first characteristic that is statistically significant, the first characteristic included in the plurality of characteristics; 
 determine a second plurality of characteristics corresponding to the second modeled internal force; and 
 compare the first and second modeled internal forces based on comparison of the first characteristic and a second characteristic, the second characteristic being included in the second plurality of characteristics. 
 
     
     
       5. The system of  claim 4 , wherein the first characteristic corresponds to the first internal force. 
     
     
       6. The system of  claim 4 , wherein one or more of the first and second characteristics is historical.